Method and apparatus for recognizing language input mode and method and apparatus for automatically switching language input modes using the same

Abstract

An apparatus for automatically switching language input modes including a first unit, to determine whether to turn on an automatic language input mode switching function; a second unit to bypass a current keystroke input via a predetermined input device when the control signal is an off signal, the second unit either bypasses the current keystroke or deletes previous keystrokes and converts the previous keystroke(s) and the current keystroke into their respective language counterparts according to recognizing a language input mode of a scan code of the current keystroke when the control signal is an on signal; and a third unit to recognize the language input mode of the scan code of the current keystroke by referring to language dictionaries and provide a current language input mode, the recognized language input mode of the current keystroke, keystroke deletion range information, and keystroke conversion range information to the second unit.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-38679, filed on Jun. 16, 2003 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for recognizing at least two language input modes for keystrokes input to a device equipped with a keyboard or a keypad and a method and apparatus for automatically switching language input modes using the method and apparatus.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]When using an application program that supports both Korean and English input modes, a user is generally required to switch a current language input mode into either the Korean or the English input mode by using a Korean / English shift key disposed on a keyboard if the current language input mode is different from a language input mode ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011]According to an aspect of the invention a method of recognizing a language input mode of each stroke input to a device equipped with a keyboard or a keypad is also provided, the method which enables a customizable recognition of a language input mode of vocabulary that is not registered with dictionaries as well as a language input mode of vocabulary registered with the dictionaries.

Problems solved by technology

It is inconvenient for the user to press the Korean / English shift key whenever it is necessary to switch the current language input mode into either the Korean or English input mode.

If the user does not realize that the current language input mode is not the desired language input mode until a few language characters have already been typed, the user has to rewrite, in the desired language input mode, all of the language characters were already typed in, which is very inconvenient and time consuming.

In addition, once the conventional automatic language input mode switching function is turned on, even characters typed in the desired language input mode may be indiscriminately converted into their respective counterparts in the wrong language input mode whenever the user presses the predetermined key, which is undesirable and inconvenient.

Currently, the application of the conventional automatic language input mode switching function is restricted to such application programs as word processing programs, and the performance of the conventional automatic language input mode switching function is highly dependent on the capacity of an electronic dictionary provided for the corresponding function.

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